Chasing Your Tail

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to

me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.’”
Exodus 14:15

The picture that comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘chasing your tail’ is of your pet dog spinning in circles, sometimes at breakneck speed, trying to catch his tail, no doubt hoping to deal with a bothersome flea that has taken up residence there. And every time, at some point in the exercise, the dog always gives up and ambles away, moving on to something else that’s caught their attention.

But ‘chasing your tail’ isn’t a saying used only in the world of dogs and cats; so often it is applied to us humans also. The idiom is defined like this: to be busy doing a lot of things but achieving little or nothing. And I would think we could all relate to times when we find ourselves spinning our wheels and going nowhere, or going in circles only to end up right back where we started, having accomplished little or nothing.

Sitting here at the computer, I’m guessing that that was the first tree that Zacchaeus climbed in all his years as a tax collector. And how often do you think Peter and John took fishing instructions on where to cast their net from a carpenter? And I wonder if Mary always left the dishes to her sister Martha or if just this one time, she saw an opportunity and went for it? Consider this quote about change: “The truth is that walking with God requires an ongoing, ever-changing experience. One of the sure signs that God is doing something in your life is that change is involved.”

Chasing your tail can be the pursuit of something that will never pan out, routines in our lives that consume our time but never yield any fruit, or going through the motions on the wrong assumption that there’s nothing you can do to change your life. How ironic that God, who calls us to prayer, told Moses to tell the people, “Stop praying and get moving.”

Stop chasing your tail might mean doing something you’ve never done before, or going somewhere that makes you uncomfortable just thinking about it. It might mean picking up the phone and dialing that number, or sitting at the computer and typing that email. Or maybe it’s picking up the Bible after years of frustration over God not speaking to you. But whatever the case, Moses got it right; it’s the call to stop chasing your tail and go forward in life.”

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Tethered

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

II Corinthians 3:17

Growing up in the 1960’s, every playground in Irondequoit, New York, had a tetherball pole: an eight foot steel pole with a seven foot chain or rope attached at the top with a ball attached to the end of that. The goal was to get the ball wrapped around the pole in your direction before your opponent did so in the other direction. And no matter how hard you hit the ball, it stayed attached, or more accurately tethered, to the end of the chain.

We too can find ourselves tethered to a life that is without joy, peace or fulfillment. Here are some areas that we can all too easily find ourselves tethered by:

• By the fear of failure or of not being good enough
• By fear of the future, and by the fear of man
• By wrong expectations put on us by ourselves and by others
• By guilt over things we’ve done in the past or by past failures
• By wrong assumptions about our own ability and potential
• By a wrong understanding of God and his working in our lives
• By sinful habits that have gotten control of us
• By attitudes that are negative and destructive

Far too often, I’ve seen good, sincere people try their best to go forward in their walk with the Lord only to hit the end of the tether rope, to get to that place where they need to experience the freedom that is promised in Jesus, “For whom the Son sets free is free indeed” and as we live in the Spirit, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” God wants to break the limitations of a life lived where these, and other areas, leave us tethered and bound. David wrote that “entrance of thy words bring light.” Reading God’s Word can make such a difference! Paul prayed that “the eyes of our understanding would be opened” to see not only the things holding us back and leaving us tethered, but the hope and power that are ours in Christ. And that too is my prayer for you this morning, that the Lord would allow you to see that He has more for your life, and that you’ll be untethered, set free to serve the Lord with a new joy, a new peace, and a renewed sense of his grace and mercy in each of our lives.

(And thanks to Cindy M. for encouraging me to start up sending out these devotions again!)

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church